Sm proteins

Sm proteins are a group of essential proteins that form a ring-like structure, called the spliceosomal snRNP core, which plays a crucial role in gene expression. They bind to small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) to form small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), key components of the spliceosome. The spliceosome is responsible for removing non-coding sequences (introns) from pre-mRNA, enabling the production of functional messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein synthesis. In summary, Sm proteins help orchestrate the precise editing of RNA transcripts, a vital step in how our cells generate proteins from genes.